Kansas Citians watching the Winter Olympics in Italy this month have probably seen at least a little curling. The sport that looks like giant shuffleboard on ice has scheduled competition every day of the Winter Games.
That visibility is paying off for the Kansas City Curling Club, says president DeeAnn Wlodarski. She says interest in the sport is skyrocketing right now.
“I get a lot of questions, just asking can people come watch? Can people come try it? Some people will just call and ask, they saw something on TV and they want me to explain it to them,” Wlodarski said.
The sport is “easy to learn, but difficult to master,” Wlodarski says.
A game of curling consists of 10 rounds, or ends. Four team members take turns “delivering” 40-pound stones down a sheet of ice, toward a target called the “house.” Players “sweep” the moving stone to propel or stop the stone’s momentum on the ice.
Whichever team has a stone closest to the center of the target at the end of the round, or “end,” earns a point – plus extra points for any others that are closer to the center than the opponent’s closest stone.
Since the Winter Games began, more than 600 people have signed up for “learn to curl” lessons at the Kansas City Curling Club’s facility in Blue Springs. Curling’s popularity always spikes during the Winter Olympics, Wlodarski says, but the United States’ silver-medal performance in the mixed-doubles competition is putting extra eyes on the sport.
Wlodarski has been curling since 2012, and loves the camaraderie established during “broomstacking,” or socializing that happens after a game.
“It doesn't matter if you're from Kansas City, if you're from Minnesota, if you're from California, Scotland, anywhere at all, we seem to have the same unwritten rules,” Wlodarski said. “There is just this generosity, there's this camaraderie that exists from place to place, and everybody is so welcoming.”
The Kansas City Curling Club’s “Olympic Curling Experience” is going on all through February. New curlers can take the intro class and play a beginner game for $35.
- DeeAnn Wlodarski, president, Kansas City Curling Club
